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TRENDS
Online MBA Programs Offer Students Options
By Elizabeth Freeman
Just about anything is available on the Internet these days,
including MBA programs that offer students more flexibility
and convenience.
Above
Picture:
Using the Internet to deliver course
material and assignments makes
graduate study more convenient for
SIUE students. |
The University of Missouri–St. Louis will soon graduate the
first class of MBA Online-Program students, and Southern Illinois
University–Edwardsville will formally implement its Internet-intensive
MBA program for the first time this fall.
A combination of forces led to the development of these programs,
including demand from Internet-savvy students who are motivated
and independent, along with competition between other educational
institutions.
While each university's program has its own admission requirements
and is structured a little differently, both have been able
to reduce the hours students are required to spend in the classroom,
while allowing students greater flexibility in completing coursework.
Fifty percent of the program at UM-St. Louis is taught online,
while the other 50 percent is spent on-campus. SIUEs program
is expected to be 40 percent online, 60 percent on-campus. One
thing the programs are not, however, are shortcuts to an MBA.
The UM-St. Louis program consists of 16 courses over a 23-month
period. SIUE's program consists of a minimum of 10 courses and
may be as many as 17 or 18, depending on the number of foundation
and prerequisite courses students are asked to take. Most SIUE
students have completed their MBA over several years time.
Without an online option, Diane Winland would not have been
able to begin pursuing her MBA now at UMSt. Louis. Winland,
an Illinois resident, works 25-hours a week for Bank of Americas
estate planning division. She telecommutes three days a week,
works in her downtown St. Louis office two days a week, and
shares the responsibility for three children, ages 17, 14 and
22 months with a spouse who sometimes works irregular hours.
I couldn't find a part-time MBA program, says Winland, who is
the only woman in her online MBA class of 16 students. The online
program allowed me to pursue my degree now instead of two or
three years from now. The program takes a lot of self-discipline,
but it saves me time away from the house. Sometimes I spend
more time online than you might spend in a traditional program
and its a lot of work. You have to organize your time, or you
will never make it through.
Like Winland, Tom Spears, an MBA student at SIUE, appreciates
the opportunity to save a little time commuting and greater
flexibility in completing his coursework. Spears works full-time
as nurse manager for same-day surgery/recovery room at St. Anthony's
Medical Center and lives in O'Fallon, Mo.
Spears is now taking a business accounting course where students
have been offered the option of leaving class an hour early
to participate in a class-related discussion online within a
period of several days. The same class of students were also
given the option of staying, and completing the course discussion
the old fashioned way. About half the students appreciate their
online option, while the others still prefer a traditional classroom
discussion. During that last hour of class, it's easier for
me to participate in the discussion on an Internet bulletin
board. The option of leaving earlier means I can spend less
time in the classroom, and have more flexibility to get things
done, he says.
Spears, a student of Mike Costigans, associate professor and
department chair of accounting at SIUE, admits that participating
in course discussions via the Internet is somewhat unique, yet
he is extremely enthusiastic about being given that option.
Over the past four or five years, a lot of faculty members started
using the Internet to communicate with students by posting assignments
on homepages, examples of work and other helpful documents,
Costigan says. In our particular case, we have a little bit
of a problem with location in that were across the river. Convincing
Missourians to drive over here is sometimes tough, and were
finding a way (via the Internet) of making our programs more
accessible without requiring as many commutes to campus. Were
trying to keep up with competition and the way the market is
moving.
Along with Costigan, Tom Eyssell, director of graduate programs
in business at UMSt. Louis, believes that the delivery system
of education will be changing tremendously within the next 10
to 15 years. While both believe the ratio of hours spent by
students on the Internet may increase while they pursue an online
MBA program, so far, there is really no substitute for true
face time, they share with their instructors and fellow students.
Face time also allows students organized into teams an opportunity
to bond and share in a real sense of camaraderie.
While students at either university may pursue class-related
discussions in realtime Internet chat rooms on their own, official
class discussions take place in a bulletin-board format to preserve
the flexibility for students, say Costigan and Eyssell.
Instructors post discussion materials at a given site, and students
simply log-on and contribute their thoughts by posting their
message or part of the discussion.
What should anyone thinking about pursuing an online/Internet
intensive MBA program know before plunging in? Students need
good, high-speed access to the Internet, Costigan says. They
need to be fairly independent thinkers people who want to do
things independently.
Students can choose the time, to a large degree, when they're
going to do the work. But the level of work, the rigor of the
program, is virtually the same as our traditional program, Eyssell
says. Its a time commitment, and were very up-front with people
about that.
Elizabeth Freeman is a principal of Panda Communications,
a public relations and media relations business in St. Louis.
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